Kees' photos

Scale model of the Jaguar 3.4 l, just 6.5cm long, around 1962, and early in the best Matchbox period. Shortly afterward, the opaque windows were replaced by transparent ones and interiors were added. Here, the hood could be opened. I owned one when I was a kid, but it has disappeared, and this is a less perfect replacement. I used to love Matchbox, and I still love the car which I think is among the most beautiful ever built.

The EXIF data don’t lie: this is our Christmas tree as of today. It must be quite nice (or so I’m told), if not as festive as Nigel’s. Fact is: we have found a stand to put it in, but nothing else. No lights, no balls, no nothing. Still, they have to be somewhere... Our first Christmas in our own home since 18 years –the basics are sound, but the execution is open to improvement.

I take many pictures which I say are of a sunrise, but you’ll rarely see the sun rise. For those who can’t believe my words: here, a full-frontal of the sun. (They say photographers should have the sun from behind, but that’s something I can’t believe.) Don’t worry: in all probability, the black dots aren’t bad pixels in your LCD screen, they are birds fleeing from the chilly fog.

A panoramic view of the Alps, as seen from our balcony. The past few days, the “Föhn” wind shared some marvelous mountain views with us.

This time of year, the sun and I rise almost simultaneously, and that results sometimes in me taking some air on the balcony.

Another early morning shot. Here the mist is still below us, but often it ascends and covers our house when the sun gets warmer. Views like this never last long.

Photo from 1994, taken with my Zenza Bronica GS-1 (which indeed also has a 6x6 back). Cora was three years old then, and took her time with her ice cone.

1994, again, just an hour or so after the other picture. Cora is sitting amidst the remains of an Early Christian church. No wonder she’s in a meditative mood. Or perhaps she’s still bothered by the sticky fingers she got from the previous ice disaster.

A week ago, I rediscovered my medium format negatives. Scanning’s a bore, and I’ll have to think twice before I single out anyone of them and subject it to that procedure. I took this picture in September 1996 with my Yashica-Mat 6x6 twin-lens reflex camera. Cora was five years old then, just about the age of the girl in the foreground, and hey, she happened to have the same kind of mouse as this kid’s holding. Life is full of coincidences. It is a snapshot, like all of my photos. Yet it has a formal quality which makes it stand out of most of the rest, I think. Anyway, it’s one of my all-time favorites.

I have taken pictures of it before: the referee tower standing on the slope where once brave young men made their jumps in winter -when winters still brought snow, and Icking still attracted visitors. It's of no use anymore, and I probably like it better now than I would have done sixty years ago.

The ski jump seems to be in pretty good shape (until you see the rest of it). On top, you get a nice view of Icking. I think that's reason enough to let it be.

... because my camera can't get close enough. It was a gigantic flower and an enormous bee.

I haven't planted these snails: they come naturally. We should invite some real gourmets for dinner.

Plots with a view.

You knew it happened to ants and spiders: exposed to nuclear radiation, they became monsters, and movie stars. Well, it happens to goldfish too (though this one unfortunately ate its agent and remained obscure). This picture was taken at Ingolstadt, home of Audi cars.

During WW II, when German cities became unsafe, the Thesaurus linguae Latinae archives were for the most part evacuated to the Benedictine Abbey of Scheyern. (Even) more interestingly, some part must have been brought to Icking, 25km south of Munich. After we had moved to that village, our then Managing Director told me that. I still have to dig up the evidence.

Shot, so to speak, from the hip, so only one out of five pictures was actually focused on him, and the rest needed to be trashed.